Come down from Heaven.—In 1874. See Rev. 3:14.
Having great power.—“All power in Heaven and in earth.”—Matt. 28:18.
And the earth was lightened.—See Mal. 4:2; Rev. 7:2.
With His glory.—Some of the glories of the New Day, all discovered since 1874, are adding machines, aeroplanes, aluminum, antiseptic surgery, artificial dyes, automatic couplers, automobiles, barbed wire, bicycles, carborundum, cash registers, celluloid, correspondence schools, cream separators, Darkest Africa, disk ploughs, Divine Plan of the Ages, dynamite, electric railways, electric welding, escalators, fireless cookers, gas engines, harvesting machines, illuminating gas, induction motors, linotypes, match machines, monotypes, motion pictures, North Pole, Panama Canal, Pasteurization, railway signals, Roentgen rays, shoe sewing machines, smokeless powder, South Pole, submarines, radium, sky scrapers, subways, talking machines, telephones, typewriters, vacuum cleaners and wireless telegraphy.—Ezek. 43:2; John 1:9; Matt. 25:31; Titus 2:13.
18:2. And he cried [mightily] with a [strong] MIGHTY voice.—How apt are these Scriptures that refer to Pastor Russell as a “voice”! (Rev. 7:2; 10:3; 16:1.) So modestly are his works written that the author is nowhere manifest, but attention is always and everywhere drawn to the Lord.
Saying, [Babylon the great is] fallen, is BABYLON THE GREAT [fallen].—“The expression, ‘Babylon is fallen,’ indicates that at some time a sudden and utter rejection is to come upon Babylon, when all favor will forever cease, and when judgments will follow—just such a rejection as we have shown was due in 1878.”—C. 155; Isa. 13:19-22; 21:9; Jer. 51:8-13; Rev. 14:8; 16:19.
“In spite of all our wealth, the blight of poverty, with its accompanying sickness, suffering, crime, insanity and vice, continues. The social disease manifested in ‘atrophy and hypertrophy,’ in ‘extremities bleeding at the bottom, bloating [pg 274] at the top, decay in both,’ is a portent of the modern world. The net result of our wonderful civilization is that men have less time now than they have ever had since the world began.”—Current Literature; Z. '11-420.
“Alienists the country over are sounding a solemn note of warning to the American people over the alarming rush in which we live. According to Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, federal pure food and drugs expert, nearly every man and woman at some time in their lives border on insanity. That view is also indorsed by the famous Dr. William A. White, head of the United States government hospital for the insane, who backs up the stand taken recently by Dr. Owen Copp, new head of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Because of the terrible ravages of drink and drugs, particularly in the United States, thousands of people are rendered so extremely nervous that they are always on the verge of going crazy. The rush and worry of modern life he gives as the causes.”—Z. '11-228.
And is become the habitation of devils.—“The New York World publishes an interview with Bishop Fallows, of the Reformed Episcopal Church, as follows: ‘Telepathy is an established fact. In recent years great strides have been made in the explanation of psychic phenomena and in the years to come the science of communication with the dead will be made a part of the curriculum of great educational institutions. I have called the new science “Immortalism” because it depends for its existence upon the immortality of the soul, in which we all believe, and the preservation of identity beyond the grave.’ Bishop Fallows will be recognized by many as one of the ministers who have recently been taking a great interest in Faith Healing clinics. We have already pointed out that to our understanding these cures are effected by hypnotic influences and that hypnotism is but another form of Spiritism. We believe that through this channel the fallen angels (‘wicked spirits,’ Eph. 6:12) are seeking to break down the human will; and that the results, shortly, will be direful in the extreme, leading to spirit control and every evil work.”—Z. '09-355; Ecc. 9:5; 1 Pet. 3:19; Jude 6; Jer. 51:37-41; Rev. 16:14; Isa. 13:19-22; 34:14.
And the hold of every foul spirit.—Rev. Wm. Sunday has exceptional opportunity for learning, and in his public discourses repeatedly “scores the ministers because they have no faith. He condemns their neglect of Bible study. He says the theological seminaries are turning out infidels. He refers to the large amount of saloon property that belongs to church members. He enumerates all kinds of worldly doings which go on in these denominations. He [pg 275] would have us believe that the moral standard of thousands high in the churches is so low as to almost stagger reason. Now if what Mr. Sunday says about the denominations is true they are not fit places for good, respectable people, to say nothing of true Christians. In fact, if they are only half as bad as he says, then every faithful child of God ought to get out of them as quickly as he can. If they are but one-quarter as bad as Mr. Sunday tells, then the only safety on the part of one who wishes to retain his faith is to get out of such spiritual pest-holes.”—Z. '15-207.